where am I going wrong

Got another letter for an unsuccessful application today. Can't understand how I've only managed to get through to one interview. Could someone read me supporting statement for me and let me know what they think? Any advice will be well received. Thank you
Hicks

Previous experience
During training I taught Year R, Year 2 twice and Year 3. My final teaching practice proved to be the most invaluable, and yet challenging placement as I took on the full role of class teacher from my first day, due to long term sickness. Through this role I developed my professional development much quicker than if I had a mentor.
Philosophy of education
Providing equal opportunity to all children is at the heart of good educational practice. All children are entitled to a high quality education regardless of their social, cultural, linguistic and ethical backgrounds. When delivering a high quality education it needs to be as fun and interactive as possible to encourage and stimulate the best possible progress and attainment within each individual pupil?s abilities. To achieve this:
? Lessons should be carefully planned. I always aim to set challenging learning objectives for each lesson which is relevant to all pupils; differentiating tasks appropriately to meet the individual needs of pupils. As discussed below.
? High expectations of work and behaviour should be outlined. I do this through sharing not only the learning objectives but the differentiated success criteria for each lesson. I inform and reinforce my behavioural expectations upon embarking in a new class.
? The classroom environment should be bright and stimulating. To support this learning it is pivotal that children feel happy, safe and secure. The most important task I undertake upon embarking on a new class is to lay the foundations for effective relationships with children; ensuring pupils are emotionally secure in their learning, helping them to build up self esteem and willingness to ask for help when they need it. I always try to encourage pupils to try, by helping them understand that we all make mistakes, in which we learn from; making us better learners.
Classroom organisation and management
It is important that a classroom is organised and managed in a way in which learning is stimulated for the pupils. It needs to be warm, welcoming, bright and positive. My displays are used to celebrate each individual?s personal achievement with their work and their achievements in behaviour and outside of school. For example the first board encountered upon entering my classroom consisted of: a photograph of my star of the week, which was awarded for good behaviour / attitudes, for meeting personal behaviour targets, for being helpful etc; photographs of children with their medals / trophies / certificates earned in and out of school; class rules; and announcements. I also used display boards as a teaching tool. For example children?s targets for numeracy, reading and writing were arranged around balloons on a display; which encouraged children to work hard as they all wanted to ?reach the sky?. I have a literacy board with key vocabulary we were using that week (ie instruction, first, then, next etc), key numeracy terms and symbols for each term dangled from the ceiling. I always have a book corner in my classrooms to encourage children to read during golden time. My last class was very small and didn?t have a book corner. So I spent an afternoon measuring the classroom furniture, which I then reorganised at home to accommodate a book corner; it took a long time but the children?s reaction made it worthwhile. In my book corner I had a recommendations board in which children could add any book titles or authors which they had read at home or in the library that they think other children might enjoy. I also included posters of lesser known books that I found in the school library. This was successful, particularly the recommendations board; the children encouraged me to add my own books onto the recommendations board; which illustrates its success. To encourage independence, all equipment was stored at children?s height, clearly labelled (typed with pictures). I also use a variety of monitors in my classroom who were responsible for areas in the classroom each week. For example, keeping the book corner tidy, collecting completed work for the marking tray, taking lunch boxes to and from the dining hall, register monitors, pencil and tray monitors etc.
It is important that time is well managed. I, and my support staff, have always used daily plans to guide us through each school day. This is something that has proven to be successful as it has kept as focussed during the hectic school day.
Planning and Delivering the curriculum
I have planned and taught all areas of the national curriculum. When planning I always aim to set challenging learning objectives for each lesson which is relevant to all pupils; differentiating tasks appropriately to meet the individual needs of pupils. The objectives are set based on accumulated evidence of pupils past and current achievement, the expected standards for the age group and the content of work relevant to the pupils within the year group and are then used to plan sequences of lessons. The planning I prepare outlines: the learning objective to be taught and learned, the activities and resources which will support this learning, how I will differentiated activities and how to monitor and assess pupils. For example the learning objective for a mid week literacy lesson was ?to be able to understand and write about the feelings of others?. In order to meet this objective we:
? re-capped on what we had learned about Florence Nightingale and her role in the Crimean war;
? then we brainstormed who she may have come across and what role they may have played, i.e. injured soldiers and other nurses and discussed possible feelings they might have;
? in mixed ability groups of five pupils children created a freeze frame using a variety of tools, such as facial expressions, to indicate how they felt;
? Touching a child on the shoulder I asked a series of questions to determine who they are, what they are doing, how they feel and why they feel like this.
The pupils using these key questions wrote about their character to accompany a digital photograph of their group?s freeze frame. This was differentiated by higher ability pupils answering key questions using full sentences, the middle ability pupils used less key questions to answer and had a laminate of key words and the lower ability pupils working with an adult using sentence starters.
continue. In addition to this I am able to make purposeful targets for
Assessment and target setting
During each lesson I use a variety of methods to monitor children?s progress towards meeting the set learning objective. I ask the TA to focus on specific pupils to ensure that they participate during carpet work. I also ask them to record their observations of the group they are working with. During every lesson I aim to focus on a particular group of children chart, using the traffic lights code to indicate the progression of each child. Assessment is used to determine whether or not children have grasped the teaching points and how learning will individual pupils each half term and update the target display.
In addition to this I am able to make purposeful targets for individual pupils each half term and update the target display. In addition to assessing the children at the end of each lesson I also evaluate my own performance during each lesson. The questions I use to focus this include: were the learning objectives achieved? Was the content appropriate? What were the strengths / weaknesses of the lesson? What are the implications for future teaching and learning? Does this lesson require modifications for the future? The information collected here is used to identify targets for my own learning and development and any necessary changes to the planning.
Subject strengths
My subject Specialism is English. The modules I undertook during training include Children?s Literature, Drama, Media and Film and Shakespeare. I found children?s literature the most interesting especially when researching attitudes young children had towards reading and the reason for these thoughts; which I carried out in your school. This formed the basis of my Final Year Project. Through school and personal life I have developed ICT. In the classroom I have used laptop and over head projectors, interactive whiteboards, digital cameras, floor turtles and personal computers to enhance learning. I find ICT can create enthusiasm much better than any other teaching tool in the classroom; children have fun and are more likely to remember what they have learned.
Extra curricular activities
I thoroughly enjoy working with children outside of the general school day and would love to lead an extra curricular activity. During my last placement I led a Christmas art club initially. I also assisted with the dress up club at lunchtimes and attended the ICT club after school; before the set up of the Christmas Art Club. I have attempted to lead other clubs in previous placements however it was felt their was no one to continue these activities after my departure and it wasn?t fair on the children.
Relationships with parents
Throughout my final teaching experience I came into contact with most of my pupils parents on a regular basis for a vast array of reasons. Many parents met with me to discuss behavioural issues at home and in school at least once a week. During these meetings we discussed influences which may be contributing towards negative behaviour and how we could work together to promote more positive behaviour. This resulted in target boards being used at home and in school. I also met with parents during parent/teacher consultation evening in which we discussed the terms targets that I set for their child in reading, writing and numeracy. Because of these strong relationships I was able to harness their skills in DT where our project was making pirate coats.
Behaviour management strategies
Upon embarking each new role as class teacher one of my main priorities is to begin building effective and positive relationships with pupils. This ensures pupils become emotionally secure in their learning, helping them to build up self esteem and willingness to ask for help when they need it. By being approachable and caring sends the message to pupils that we all have new things to learn and that I am interested in what they say or do. Most recently I had a very challenging class due to the unfortunate disruptive start to their education. Subsequently the pupils had poor levels of behaviour and attitudes, exhibiting difficult behaviour such as crawling under tables, physical violence, talking and shouting over me and often refusing to participate in activities. I approached this challenge by determining the reasons for poor behaviour using information provided by other staff, IEPs, the children and parents. I have also used my TA to observe and record the behaviour of target children to enable a fair assessment of their behaviour. I then compiled five simple class rules with the children reinforcing them using reward systems I implemented. For example if the whole class showed they were trying to abide by their rules then they received a gem towards their extra play, whole groups received house points and individuals received a ?catch me? point. If the children had 5 points then they received 10 minutes reward time at the end of each school day. Some children also had their own personal target boards to provide a focus for improving behaviour and earned additional rewards for this. I minimised change, i.e. all literacy and numeracy was carried out in the mornings, to create and maintain a routine which promoted feelings of safety and security. I modelled positive behaviour through my body language, the way I spoke and tome of voice I used. I implemented various strategies such as a timer to show children how much time we had left to work to keep them more focussed and a bell to indicate it was time to stop work; the first child received a reward, gradually becoming more challenging by rewarding the first table. A good work monitor also recorded those who were working well. If children weren?t on task I would address those that were working and reward appropriately to strengthen the ethos that I focus on the positive behaviour.
Teamwork
During my last placement in particular I regularly participated in and contribute to whole school meetings to prepare for the imminent ofsted inspection, modifying school policies and preparing for up and coming events; KS1 meetings to level half termly assessments and preparing for KS1 events; year two meetings which involved planning for the following weeks work, sharing ideas and good practice ideas, modifying medium term plans, sharing outcomes of assessment such as SPARS test and preparing for trips and meetings with the SENCO to update IEPS. During this time I developed my understanding of the benefits of working within a team which has the same goals and aspirations for the development of the school. By building strong relationships I was able to harness the experience of others when furthering my own professional development. For example when preparing for the KS1 assembly and class liturgy I was expected to carry out and when updating IEP?s, as I have never carried out any of these tasks previously.
Summary
I am a very hardworking and dedicated teacher who has consistently been described as enthusiastic and determined in supporting all children to achieve their personal best. During my final placement many words were used to describe my qualities such as enthusiastic, dedicated, flexible and adaptable. I enjoy working as part of a team and look forward to the chance to spend time socially with colleagues as well as supporting them in their working environment. I am very keen to learn from the more experience staff whilst sharing my own ideas and abilities of good practice in order to assess and further my professional development. I enjoy working with children and find that no day is the same; going home with a smile on my face thinking of the things children say and do. I look forward to visiting your school and would welcome the opportunity to begin my career in a positive environment where I can face whatever the future throws at me with confidence and a smile.

Got another letter for an unsuccessful application today. Can't understand how I've only managed to get through to one interview. Could someone read me supporting statement for me and let me know what they think? Any advice will be well received. Thank you
Hicks

Previous experience
During training I taught Year R, Year 2 twice and Year 3. My final teaching practice proved to be the most invaluable, and yet challenging placement as I took on the full role of class teacher from my first day, due to long term sickness. Through this role I developed my professional development much quicker than if I had a mentor.
Philosophy of education
Providing equal opportunity to all children is at the heart of good educational practice. All children are entitled to a high quality education regardless of their social, cultural, linguistic and ethical backgrounds. When delivering a high quality education it needs to be as fun and interactive as possible to encourage and stimulate the best possible progress and attainment within each individual pupil?s abilities. To achieve this:
? Lessons should be carefully planned. I always aim to set challenging learning objectives for each lesson which is relevant to all pupils; differentiating tasks appropriately to meet the individual needs of pupils. As discussed below.
? High expectations of work and behaviour should be outlined. I do this through sharing not only the learning objectives but the differentiated success criteria for each lesson. I inform and reinforce my behavioural expectations upon embarking in a new class.
? The classroom environment should be bright and stimulating. To support this learning it is pivotal that children feel happy, safe and secure. The most important task I undertake upon embarking on a new class is to lay the foundations for effective relationships with children; ensuring pupils are emotionally secure in their learning, helping them to build up self esteem and willingness to ask for help when they need it. I always try to encourage pupils to try, by helping them understand that we all make mistakes, in which we learn from; making us better learners.
Classroom organisation and management
It is important that a classroom is organised and managed in a way in which learning is stimulated for the pupils. It needs to be warm, welcoming, bright and positive. My displays are used to celebrate each individual?s personal achievement with their work and their achievements in behaviour and outside of school. For example the first board encountered upon entering my classroom consisted of: a photograph of my star of the week, which was awarded for good behaviour / attitudes, for meeting personal behaviour targets, for being helpful etc; photographs of children with their medals / trophies / certificates earned in and out of school; class rules; and announcements. I also used display boards as a teaching tool. For example children?s targets for numeracy, reading and writing were arranged around balloons on a display; which encouraged children to work hard as they all wanted to ?reach the sky?. I have a literacy board with key vocabulary we were using that week (ie instruction, first, then, next etc), key numeracy terms and symbols for each term dangled from the ceiling. I always have a book corner in my classrooms to encourage children to read during golden time. My last class was very small and didn?t have a book corner. So I spent an afternoon measuring the classroom furniture, which I then reorganised at home to accommodate a book corner; it took a long time but the children?s reaction made it worthwhile. In my book corner I had a recommendations board in which children could add any book titles or authors which they had read at home or in the library that they think other children might enjoy. I also included posters of lesser known books that I found in the school library. This was successful, particularly the recommendations board; the children encouraged me to add my own books onto the recommendations board; which illustrates its success. To encourage independence, all equipment was stored at children?s height, clearly labelled (typed with pictures). I also use a variety of monitors in my classroom who were responsible for areas in the classroom each week. For example, keeping the book corner tidy, collecting completed work for the marking tray, taking lunch boxes to and from the dining hall, register monitors, pencil and tray monitors etc.
It is important that time is well managed. I, and my support staff, have always used daily plans to guide us through each school day. This is something that has proven to be successful as it has kept as focussed during the hectic school day.
Planning and Delivering the curriculum
I have planned and taught all areas of the national curriculum. When planning I always aim to set challenging learning objectives for each lesson which is relevant to all pupils; differentiating tasks appropriately to meet the individual needs of pupils. The objectives are set based on accumulated evidence of pupils past and current achievement, the expected standards for the age group and the content of work relevant to the pupils within the year group and are then used to plan sequences of lessons. The planning I prepare outlines: the learning objective to be taught and learned, the activities and resources which will support this learning, how I will differentiated activities and how to monitor and assess pupils. For example the learning objective for a mid week literacy lesson was ?to be able to understand and write about the feelings of others?. In order to meet this objective we:
? re-capped on what we had learned about Florence Nightingale and her role in the Crimean war;
? then we brainstormed who she may have come across and what role they may have played, i.e. injured soldiers and other nurses and discussed possible feelings they might have;
? in mixed ability groups of five pupils children created a freeze frame using a variety of tools, such as facial expressions, to indicate how they felt;
? Touching a child on the shoulder I asked a series of questions to determine who they are, what they are doing, how they feel and why they feel like this.
The pupils using these key questions wrote about their character to accompany a digital photograph of their group?s freeze frame. This was differentiated by higher ability pupils answering key questions using full sentences, the middle ability pupils used less key questions to answer and had a laminate of key words and the lower ability pupils working with an adult using sentence starters.
continue. In addition to this I am able to make purposeful targets for
Assessment and target setting
During each lesson I use a variety of methods to monitor children?s progress towards meeting the set learning objective. I ask the TA to focus on specific pupils to ensure that they participate during carpet work. I also ask them to record their observations of the group they are working with. During every lesson I aim to focus on a particular group of children chart, using the traffic lights code to indicate the progression of each child. Assessment is used to determine whether or not children have grasped the teaching points and how learning will individual pupils each half term and update the target display.
In addition to this I am able to make purposeful targets for individual pupils each half term and update the target display. In addition to assessing the children at the end of each lesson I also evaluate my own performance during each lesson. The questions I use to focus this include: were the learning objectives achieved? Was the content appropriate? What were the strengths / weaknesses of the lesson? What are the implications for future teaching and learning? Does this lesson require modifications for the future? The information collected here is used to identify targets for my own learning and development and any necessary changes to the planning.
Subject strengths
My subject Specialism is English. The modules I undertook during training include Children?s Literature, Drama, Media and Film and Shakespeare. I found children?s literature the most interesting especially when researching attitudes young children had towards reading and the reason for these thoughts; which I carried out in your school. This formed the basis of my Final Year Project. Through school and personal life I have developed ICT. In the classroom I have used laptop and over head projectors, interactive whiteboards, digital cameras, floor turtles and personal computers to enhance learning. I find ICT can create enthusiasm much better than any other teaching tool in the classroom; children have fun and are more likely to remember what they have learned.
Extra curricular activities
I thoroughly enjoy working with children outside of the general school day and would love to lead an extra curricular activity. During my last placement I led a Christmas art club initially. I also assisted with the dress up club at lunchtimes and attended the ICT club after school; before the set up of the Christmas Art Club. I have attempted to lead other clubs in previous placements however it was felt their was no one to continue these activities after my departure and it wasn?t fair on the children.
Relationships with parents
Throughout my final teaching experience I came into contact with most of my pupils parents on a regular basis for a vast array of reasons. Many parents met with me to discuss behavioural issues at home and in school at least once a week. During these meetings we discussed influences which may be contributing towards negative behaviour and how we could work together to promote more positive behaviour. This resulted in target boards being used at home and in school. I also met with parents during parent/teacher consultation evening in which we discussed the terms targets that I set for their child in reading, writing and numeracy. Because of these strong relationships I was able to harness their skills in DT where our project was making pirate coats.
Behaviour management strategies
Upon embarking each new role as class teacher one of my main priorities is to begin building effective and positive relationships with pupils. This ensures pupils become emotionally secure in their learning, helping them to build up self esteem and willingness to ask for help when they need it. By being approachable and caring sends the message to pupils that we all have new things to learn and that I am interested in what they say or do. Most recently I had a very challenging class due to the unfortunate disruptive start to their education. Subsequently the pupils had poor levels of behaviour and attitudes, exhibiting difficult behaviour such as crawling under tables, physical violence, talking and shouting over me and often refusing to participate in activities. I approached this challenge by determining the reasons for poor behaviour using information provided by other staff, IEPs, the children and parents. I have also used my TA to observe and record the behaviour of target children to enable a fair assessment of their behaviour. I then compiled five simple class rules with the children reinforcing them using reward systems I implemented. For example if the whole class showed they were trying to abide by their rules then they received a gem towards their extra play, whole groups received house points and individuals received a ?catch me? point. If the children had 5 points then they received 10 minutes reward time at the end of each school day. Some children also had their own personal target boards to provide a focus for improving behaviour and earned additional rewards for this. I minimised change, i.e. all literacy and numeracy was carried out in the mornings, to create and maintain a routine which promoted feelings of safety and security. I modelled positive behaviour through my body language, the way I spoke and tome of voice I used. I implemented various strategies such as a timer to show children how much time we had left to work to keep them more focussed and a bell to indicate it was time to stop work; the first child received a reward, gradually becoming more challenging by rewarding the first table. A good work monitor also recorded those who were working well. If children weren?t on task I would address those that were working and reward appropriately to strengthen the ethos that I focus on the positive behaviour.
Teamwork
During my last placement in particular I regularly participated in and contribute to whole school meetings to prepare for the imminent ofsted inspection, modifying school policies and preparing for up and coming events; KS1 meetings to level half termly assessments and preparing for KS1 events; year two meetings which involved planning for the following weeks work, sharing ideas and good practice ideas, modifying medium term plans, sharing outcomes of assessment such as SPARS test and preparing for trips and meetings with the SENCO to update IEPS. During this time I developed my understanding of the benefits of working within a team which has the same goals and aspirations for the development of the school. By building strong relationships I was able to harness the experience of others when furthering my own professional development. For example when preparing for the KS1 assembly and class liturgy I was expected to carry out and when updating IEP?s, as I have never carried out any of these tasks previously.
Summary
I am a very hardworking and dedicated teacher who has consistently been described as enthusiastic and determined in supporting all children to achieve their personal best. During my final placement many words were used to describe my qualities such as enthusiastic, dedicated, flexible and adaptable. I enjoy working as part of a team and look forward to the chance to spend time socially with colleagues as well as supporting them in their working environment. I am very keen to learn from the more experience staff whilst sharing my own ideas and abilities of good practice in order to assess and further my professional development. I enjoy working with children and find that no day is the same; going home with a smile on my face thinking of the things children say and do. I look forward to visiting your school and would welcome the opportunity to begin my career in a positive environment where I can face whatever the future throws at me with confidence and a smile.

Way too long! How many side of A4 (including addresses and sigs) is this when printed out?

To be honest I switched off after a while as it's quite waffley (sp??), too much detail rather than concise. From reading it I don't feel that there is anything else to find out about you, so why bother asking you to interiew when there are other people I am more curious about>?

My first thought is that it is rather long. It runs to nearly three pages at 12 point and this is without address, saluation etc (assuming you are formatting this as letter of application as usual). In letter form this would be nearer four pages. You should be aiming at 1 and a half to two pages max.

You've made loads of generic (and correct) statements that everyone will agree with, and talked a lot about what you've done but you've given almost no examples of how you've actually made a difference in each area.

Use the STAR principle - for each criterion give an example in this format:

S - what was the situation you were facing
T - what task did you undertake to solve this
A - what actions did you take to solve this
R - what were the results - use numbers or anecdotes to emphasise this.

How did your literacy and numeracy boards affect achievement? What proportion of your students learned about Florence Nightingale? How did they use this learning?

You can cut this down to 1 page and make it much better - I'm sure you will do well as reading between the lines you show a lot of commitment! Good luck.

I agree with previous posters. I am only a student teacher myself but just thought I'd add my opinion.

Your letter is wayyy too long. Cut out the waffle which isn't needed. ONLY put in information which the reader NEEDS to shortlist you. e.g. you write 'I measured the furniture and then went home.... etc'. Instead, just keep it short and simple. e.g. "One of the things I decided I'd like to try out was to introduce a book corner into the classroom. In the book corner I included.... because.... and it had ..... effect on learning."
This is much shorter and easier to read.

I admit I did switch off from your letter after a while too.

Do you have a careers advisor at uni? It may be worth taking it to them and asking them to help you to cut out the unnecessary parts.

You need to add more SPECIFIC examples of how your teaching has impacted on learning. You have included lots of generic examples, e.g.
"When planning I always aim to set challenging learning objectives for each lesson which is relevant to all pupils; differentiating tasks appropriately to meet the individual needs of pupils."

but you haven't given specific examples e.g. "when working on the topic of The Tudors, one of the things we focused on was.... for this lesson, I recognised the need to challenge the higher attaining pupils and did so by........ which had an impact on their learning in that....."

Actually relate things to specific lessons and examples.

If I were you, I'd open a new Word document, alongside the one containing your current personal statement, and start again, re-wording your personal statement bit by bit and eliminating any parts that the reader doesn't need to know. Don't copy and paste much. What you're saying has really good elements - it just needs refining.

THank you guys. Just felt I needed a little more guidance. It is actually only two pages (just). But thank you for your advice. It is appreciated greatly. Any additional hellp would be greatly received. Thank you.

You are very generic in statements and need to make it much more personal. Explain directly why you want to work for their school - what you can give them and how they can help you (focus more on what you can offer them) Lots of I can and I have statements

My personal statement is nearly 3 sides A4 and got me 6 interviews (the last one successful, yay!) from about 50 applications, so I wouldn't worry too much about length as long as what you say is relevant. I agree with previous posters, it's a bit waffley. Get rid of the generic statements and replace them with examples of things you have done. You can start with a paragraph about what placements you have completed but after that you need to make sure each paragraph relates to one of the standards or to a point on the person specification. I picked out 2 or 3 standards from each section which I had great examples for and used that to structure my statement. Here is one of my paragraphs.

I have used a variety of methods of classroom organisation to enable effective teaching and learning, including whole class work and targeting groups and individuals while others work independently and I am able to use a range of teaching methods, including interactive methods and collaborative group work. When teaching a unit of work on Mechanisms in Design and Technology, I asked children to work in mixed ability groups to design and make their own pop up books. They were responsible for deciding the content of the book, which mechanisms to use and which resources to use. Children were required to share and discuss ideas and to allocate tasks equally between members of the group. This helped develop speaking and listening skills, as did presenting their book specification to the class.

Paul JM, I have copied and pasted it, and at font 10 verdana and with a margin of 1.5cm it all fits onto 2 pages - without addresses.

Don't want to be over-critical to the O.P, I've already posted my comments, but I do feel this is too long. A headteacher will be more impressed with concise, straight-to-the-point letters which are easy to read. Put yourself in their shoes - if you had 80 applicants for a job, would you want to sit and read 80 letters that are 3 pages?

Thank you for the guidance guys. I'm going to scrap what I've got and start again. Obviously I've gone way off track and need to address this before continuing with applications. Thank you very much (esp Charlotte) much appreciated.

Hickles - wouldn't say 'scrap' it completely - you have some good ideas about what you should be talking about. These just need to be extracted - I honestly would have the 2 word documents open together (new and old personal statement) so that you can extract anything good from the old one.

If you spend a good few hours on it, you'll get there.
The other thing to say is that I kind of disagree with Charlotte's point about choosing standards to write about - I do a few paragraphs on my general experience on teaching practice and other work with chn that is valuable, and then address the person specification for that particular job. Don't just write one letter out and send it to lots of places - you need to adapt it to account for each item on the person spec of each job.

Schools don't want to know what you have done and how you can meet objectives. You should include one paragraph about placements, the rest should be about your philosophy, what you believe in, what your strengths are and what you want to offer as a teacher at their school.

"Schools don't want to know what you have done and how you can meet objectives."

I totally disagree! Why do they create job descriptions and person specifications then? Anyone can write about education and come up with a convincing personal philosophy - it does not prove they are a good teacher or even have the potential to become one.

Writing too much about what you will do at the school will also put people off - you don't know the culture yet and will only see it when you get there! You also must give examples of how you have applied your strengths or they are just words.

When you are coming up against dozens of other people in a recruitment process you need to demonstrate above all that you can do the job.

Just to let you know, I try to keep my personal statement to one side. I do get interviews and I have plenty of answew for the questions....I think interviewers like a bit of mystery so they can enjoy the interview process.